Mixed-Integer Programming for Cycle Detection in Non-reversible Markov Processes

In this paper, we present a new, optimization-based method to exhibit cyclic behavior in non-reversible stochastic processes. While our method is general, it is strongly motivated by discrete simulations of ordinary differential equations representing non-reversible biological processes, in particular molecular simulations. Here, the discrete time steps of the simulation are often very small compared to … Read more

A Riemannian conjugate gradient method for optimization on the Stiefel manifold

In this paper we propose a new Riemannian conjugate gradient method for optimization on the Stiefel manifold. We introduce two novel vector transports associated with the retraction constructed by the Cayley transform. Both of them satisfy the Ring-Wirth nonexpansive condition, which is fundamental for convergence analysis of Riemannian conjugate gradient methods, and one of them … Read more

A Branch-and-Price Algorithm for the Vehicle Routing Problem with Roaming Delivery Locations

We study the vehicle routing problem with roaming delivery locations in which the goal is to find a least-cost set of delivery routes for a fleet of capacitated vehicles and in which a customer order has to be delivered to the trunk of the customer’s car during the time that the car is parked at … Read more

Distributionally Robust Optimization with Infinitely Constrained Ambiguity Sets

We consider a distributionally robust optimization problem where the ambiguity set of probability distributions is characterized by a tractable conic representable support set and expectation constraints. Specifically, we propose and motivate a new class of infinitely constrained ambiguity sets in which the number of expectation constraints could potentially be infinite. We show how the infinitely … Read more

On max-k-sums

The max-$k$-sum of a set of real scalars is the maximum sum of a subset of size $k$, or alternatively the sum of the $k$ largest elements. We study two extensions: First, we show how to obtain smooth approximations to functions that are pointwise max-$k$-sums of smooth functions. Second, we discuss how the max-$k$-sum can … Read more

Visualizing proportions and dissimilarities by Space-filling maps: a Large Neighborhood Search approach

In this paper we address the problem of visualizing a set of individuals, which have attached a statistical value given as a proportion, and a dissimilarity measure. Each individual is represented as a region within the unit square, in such a way that the area of the regions represent the proportions and the distances between … Read more

Gradient-type penalty method with inertial effects for solving constrained convex optimization problems with smooth data

We consider the problem of minimizing a smooth convex objective function subject to the set of minima of another differentiable convex function. In order to solve this problem, we propose an algorithm which combines the gradient method with a penalization technique. Moreover, we insert in our algorithm an inertial term, which is able to take … Read more

Branch and Bound based methods to minimize the energy consumed by an electrical vehicle on long travels with slopes

We consider the problem of minimization of the energy consumed by an electrical vehicle performing quite long travels with slopes. The model we address here, takes into account the electrical and mechanical differential equations of the vehicle. This yields a mixed-integer optimal control problem that can be approximated, using a methodology based on some decomposition … Read more